Friday was our snorkel cruise! We took a Pacific Whale Foundation boat from Lahaina to Lanai, an island west of Maui. That island was actually purchased last year for around $500,000,000. I wish I could buy an island!! :) On the way to Lanai, we saw a big pack of spinner dolphins! They were right up by the boat, so we had a great view! They are called spinner dolphins because while they swim, they jump up out of the water and twirl. Here is a picture of one of them jumping.
I stole this picture from Sandy. I will have more eventually.
Here we are on the boat!
We sailed around Lanai to a bay and dropped the anchor. Once we got all our gear on, we got in the water to check out the fish and coral! Dad struggled with the goggles at first, because his mustache prevented them from sealing properly, so they filled with water. It took a little while for him to get used to the snorkel too, but he got the hang of it. Here are a couple of pictures (stolen from Sandy again).
Dad and I getting into the water.
Here's Mom and Dad from below. Dad wore a wetsuit top so his back didn't get sunburned. According to the boat crew, it is "SPF a million!"
Parrotfish!
This guy you may recognize from Finding Nemo! I also saw a few Dory-fish around.
We had an hour and a half in the water to look around. Mom started not feeling too well, so she went back to the boat after a while and got some ginger candy to help with the seasickness. I swam around with Dad and made sure he didn't run into the boat. (He wasn't really watching where he was going) :)
When we were done snorkeling, we got back on the boat and had lunch. They served grilled chicken breast and hot dogs. Once everyone was back on board, we set off towards Maui. Mom got a bit seasick, so I don't think she enjoyed that part of it too much, but we saw another pack of dolphins no the way back, so that was exciting. Spotted dolphins this time!
This is a picture of the west side of Maui from the boat on our way back.
When we got back to Lahaina, we checked out the banyan tree and went into a museum and found a great 3D map of Maui. I think that really helped Dad get his directions figured out. We did a little shopping, then Sandy and I came back to Makawao, and the 'rents went to their hotel to hang out on the beach and explore the other hotels around them.
On Saturday, I drove over to Ka'anapali with some snorkel gear so we could check out the fish around Black Rock. We saw lots of fun things, including the state fish of Hawaii, the humuhumunukunukuapua'a.
There's Dad sitting on Black Rock! (The very bottom of it, but it still counts!)
After we were done swimming, we met Sandy and Cole at Launiupoko Beach Park, where I had been learning to surf. I do believe Mom agreed to try surfing, but that never happened, so I'm not sure how she got out of that one.... :) I wasn't quite successful at surfing, but it was an improvement from the last time. Cole definitely knows what he's doing, but there was one fall that Mom got a really good picture of, so I'm putting that on here anyway. :)
No idea who this is, but it was really cute with him helping the little girl surf!
We had a little photo shoot after surfing because the scenery was so pretty.
Don't be fooled, Dad was standing on a higher part of the rock. Mom claims that she is not actually that short. :)
Here's me and my summer family!
Photo shoot for Cole and Sandy too!
After we were done with surfing and pictures, we went back to the hotel and got some great pictures of the sunset!
On Sunday we went to Makena with the kayaks. Dad really liked that. He got in the kayak and just took off! :)
This is where we were. There was a wedding on the beach just before we got there, so we might have ended up in a few wedding photos, who knows!
Looking straight out from the beach you can see the other side of Maui. Dad was surprised that those windmills over there are the only ones on the island. Apparently ten of them are actually quite new. One of the reasons there aren't more of them here is the difficulties with transportation. It is not a big deal to haul those giant trucks on our straight highways, but here the roads are much narrower and curvier, and definitely not built for long trailers. Not to mention that all of the pieces have to be shipped here.
Anyway, here are some pictures of us out on the kayaks.
I was quizzing her on the islands that we could see. :)
Mom crashed her kayak on her way back into shore. She was riding the waves in and one took her and tipped the kayak over. Oops! No injuries, but it was kind of hilarious. :) I chose the less risky way; I hopped out of my kayak in the water and walked it back in. Mom also got knocked over by a wave when we were going out to snorkel. She was trying to put her fins on up by the shore, and in comes a wave. Flippers went flying and mom went down! Again, hilarious. :) We swam around a bit and saw lots of fish and coral and possibly a baby octopus. We couldn't really tell what it was.
After snorkeling, we packed everything up and got some lunch in Kihei at the Pupu Lounge. Dad and I had a fish called Walu there, which was excellent. After lunch, we changed out of our suits and met Cole in Iao Valley. We hiked up to the top of a small peak and found some fantastic views. Mom got a little freaked out at the top, but I don't blame her. It was pretty high up and there was quite a drop off. We even found a waterfall way off in the distance. However, those pictures are on Mom's camera, and she has not uploaded them yet, so I don't have those to post. On our way back down, it started to rain pretty hard, so we got a little wet. Oh well! We were sweaty anyway. There was a great big tree down by the stream, and that I do have a picture of.
Dad was pretty amazed by this tree. I think both of them enjoyed seeing Iao. I certainly did. I would say it is one of my favorite places on Maui.
Monday we drove the road to Hana. We weren't sure if we wanted to go the whole way there, so we were just going with the flow. It is 50ish miles to Hana from where I was, but it takes about three hours because the road is so curvy and you have to drive slow. Plus there are places to stop along the way and see waterfalls or get banana bread. We did end up making it all the way actually; we ended at a black sand beach with these great lava rock formations and it was gorgeous!
There's dad!
We found a little cave.
"Climbing" a palm tree. Why not?
Dad found one a little more treacherous to climb.
It was a gorgeous drive, and we had a cd that told us about what we were seeing. That was a great thing to have. Lots of information, and the kooky narrator was very entertaining. :)
Tuesday morning Mom and Dad went to the sugar museum to learn about how the cane is processed. Then they picked me up and we went to Kanaha beach park and watched the kite boarders for a bit. Dad listened in on a lesson for a bit. Then it was off to the airport for our trip to Oahu!
Oahu is very different from Maui. It's a much busier and more crowded place. Waikiki was packed! We walked around for a bit and saw the beach. I showed them where I stayed when I was there with Sandy. We did a little shopping and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory. We had an early pick-up on Wednesday for our tour. We went to Pearl Harbor first. That was a really interesting place. I learned a lot about the history of the base and the details of the attack. It is a tragic place, obviously, but I'm very glad that I got to see it.
When we left Pearl Harbor, we went to the Dole Plantation to look around. We mainly just walked around the store, because we didn't have much time. A security guard there talked to us about how to grow pineapples. We tried some pineapple ice cream, which was excellent. There were a lot of painted trees on the plantation too.
After Dole, we drove up to the North Shore. On the way, our tour guide stopped the bus so we could get out and see a bunch of sea turtles who were hanging out right up at the beach. There were at least eight or nine of them! They were just floating around, and they would poke their heads up every now and then to get some air. I think mom got some good pictures of them.
There's a little face!
This was a really pretty lookout place that we stopped at. The rocks used to be connected, but a tsunami came through the area and knocked them apart.
Those rocks stacked up there are apparently like that in order to honor a Hawaiian god.
This was another stop we made. This road is where they filmed the part of 50 First Dates when Adam Sandler is waiting with his penguin every day. Part of Jurassic Park was filmed here too!
Here's Dad at one of the beach stops!
Such clear water!!!
We ate lunch at a fishing pond where the tv show Last Resort was filmed. There were some shops there too that we walked through. There were more giant trees there too!
When we were done there, we drove up to the Pali lookout. I had been here with Sandy, so I knew to take them down to the wind tunnel to feel the extra strong winds. The lookout was where our tour ended, so went back to the hotel and then to the airport! We walked around a bit and got some supper, then we had to split up because we were leaving from different terminals. It was sad to see them go, but I knew it would only be two weeks until I saw them again, so that made it easier.
There you have it! A full account of Mom and Dad's visit to Hawaii!
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